“Well,” he said, “I’m going back to the mine tomorrow. We’ll hold on as long as possible.”
He left; and a few minutes later Stirling came in. He sat down and handed Wannop a cigar.
“Now,” he said, “we have got to talk.”
“If you’d come a little earlier you’d have met Weston.”
“Yes,” said Stirling, “that’s just why I didn’t. Now, where’s the trouble?”
“I’ll tell you—though to some extent it’s a breach of confidence. It’s the shortage of money, and the fact that our stock is tumbling down.”
“Tumbling down?”
Wannop smiled. “I might have said being clubbed down.”
“I want to get the thing quite straight,” said Stirling. “What made you take up this mine?”
“Mr. Weston’s representations. I think I attached as much weight to them as I did to the specimens. I felt that was a man that I could put my money on.”